In the Far North, melting permafrost is disrupting the lives of thousands in their communities. (PHOTO: Wojtek Gajek, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences)

At a time when the world is attempting to curb carbon emissions, the inhabitants of the Far North are having to adapt to the consequences of climate change - in particular melting permafrost. How does one build infrastructure on ground which no longer offers the same support as it once did? Thanks to non-invasive measurement technology and a new interpretation method, Professor Pooneh Maghoul believes he may well have a solution.

In the past, we didn't ask ourselves too many questions when it came to building a house, a road, or any other facility in the Far North. Whether it was sitting on rock or on permanently frozen ground, the structure wasn't expected to going to go anywhere.

The accelerated melting of permafrost is changing all that.

In recent years, disasters linked to melting soil in the Far North have multiplied. Catastrophies such as broken oil pipes and ruptured tanks have been added to the toll of landslides, from Siberia and the Northwest Territories, all the way to Alaska. Melting permafrost is also suspected to be behind contaminated drinking water reservoirs in Iqaluit, located north of the province of Québec. All this is occuring against the backdrop of the dramatic impact of the release of methane trapped for centuries in this type of soil.

While it's already too late to prevent the phenomenon, western science can assist Far Northern communities to mitigate the impact. This is what Professor Pooneh Maghoul, from the Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering at Polytechnique Montreal, seeks to do.

Shifting sands

A specialist in geotechnical engineering (the study of soils before a structure is moved there), over the years, Professor Maghoul has also developed expertise in porous materials. “My work ranges from Emmental and Gruyere style cheese porousness, to placenta-like porousness, all through various soil types,” she jokes.

As you can imagine, permafrost is part of her expertise. Located under the active layer of soil that allows plants to take root, this once-permanently frozen soil becomes like melting chocolate - or even quicksand - giving way to accumulations of water and gas between layers of organic matter. It's a combination that significantly weakens the soil's reach, she says: "It becomes like slush."

Yet how can we build on ground that has become unstable? How can we ensure the safety of what's already been built there? Professor Maghoul believes she may have  a solution.

“Right now, there's no way to know for sure what will happen on a site where the soil is in the process of being deeply thawed,” she says. One of the most commonly used techniques involves collecting soil samples, coring and then analyzing them in an  laboratory suitably equipped, but often located hundreds of kilometers away. “Transporting samples this way incurs huge costs,” adds the professional engineer.

She and doctoral student Hongwei Liu are working on a solution: a non-invasive approach based on specialized software.